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A country is a region that is identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated people with distinct political characteristics. Regardless of the physical geography, in the modern internationally accepted legal definition as defined by the League of Nations in 1937 and reaffirmed by the United Nations in 1945, a resident of a country is subject to the independent exercise of legal jurisdiction. Sometimes the word ''countries'' is used to refer both to sovereign states and to other political entities,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Tjhe Kwet Koe v Minister for Immigration & Ethnic Affairs & Ors [1997] FCA 912 (8 September 1997) )〕 while other times it refers only to states. For example, the ''CIA World Factbook'' uses the word in its "Country name" field to refer to "a wide variety of dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, uninhabited islands, and other entities in addition to the traditional countries or independent states".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=CIA - The World Factbook )〕[Note 1] ==Etymology and usage== The word ''country'' comes from Old French ''cuntrée'', itself derived from Vulgar Latin (terra) ''contrata'' (“(land) lying opposite; (land) spread before”), derived from ''contra'' (“against, opposite”). It most likely entered English language after the Franco-Norman invasion during the 11th century. In English the word has increasingly become associated with political divisions, so that one sense, associated with the indefinite article – "a country" – is now a synonym for Sovereign statee United States and Brazil are also "pays" in everyday French speech. A version of "country" can be found in the modern French language as ''contrée'', based on the word ''cuntrée'' in Old French,〔 that is used similarly to the word "pays" to define regions and unities, but can also be used to describe a political state in some particular cases. The modern Italian ''contrada'' is a word with its meaning varying locally, but usually meaning a ward or similar small division of a town, or a village or hamlet in the countryside. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「country」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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